The spiritual battle
11th Feb 2007
Trevor Withers, Eph 6 v 10-13
Setting the context for the next few weeks teaching.
What does this passage in Ephesians mean for us? We grapple with understanding this, the spiritual world exists in a sort of ‘4th dimension’. Trevor drew a stickman on the board and explained how the stick man is a two dimensional being, but we are three dimensional. We can do things to the stick man eg draw hair on him, that he cannot understand. Likewise we are as different to the ‘4th dimension’. There are some things we may be fairly clued up about, but many things we will have no understanding about.
God's breath of life into Man in Genesis was not just physical life but also spiritual life.
Question:
How do you imagine the spiritual world, that 4th dimension, how do you think about it. Is there a verse, concept or idea which sums up our impressions of what it might be like.
Answers from the congregation:
The spiritual world is just as scientific as the physical world, with rules and regulations, but we learn from the Word and God’s spirit how to understand it.
In
Africa they are aware of the spiritual world, they also understand that demons can't be everywhere whereas God can be everywhere.
It’s inhabited by spiritual beings who are at war with each other.
It's an active thing, the gates of hell will not prevail against us in the spiritual.
Picture of war and battle and fights over territory.
Like a socket on the wall, we have a choice as to whether to plug into it to access the power.
Eph 2 v 12 you were separated from Christ, but now you have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Jesus is the connection point between our dimension and the 4th.
Our own dimension is shadowy, like a whisper, the spiritual world is what's really real.
Controlled anarchy, all things are under Jesus’ feet.
Discernment, we cannot see the spiritual world but with discernment we see bits of it and understand bits of it.
Like the stars in the sky, the spiritual world can look 2 dimensional, we need to understand and look behind the obvious in order to understand it.
Words
In this Ephesians passage 6 words are used:
Rulers - cosmic powers – this is the controlled anarchy, they have limited power. God has given various entities permission to have a say into how things are run eg Job, Psalm 82. God's cosmic council, the heavenly hosts, a wording removed from our modern Bible translations.
Powers – potentate, one who aspires to world control. The battle rages in a geographical sense, spiritual territory. Paul encourages us to stand firm to maintain the territory we have and act as a launchpad to take more
The spiritual forces of wickedness – Eph 2 verses tell us how once we were in darkness but now we can fight against these forces, as the holy spirit indwells us.
The heavenly realms – the unseen world in general where the good and bad inhabit, the 4th dimension, sometimes referred to as 'the air' in the Bible.
We are engaged with that world, called as Christians to be engaged with the 4th dimension, and to see how it influences us.
We pray ‘Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven’, which means that his will is not done fully at present, he is not fully in control.
His kingdom is coming but into what, into the kingdom of the prince of the air, the kingdom where God does not yet have complete control.
The missing middle
How would non Christians describe God? Perhaps as disconnected, not interested, powerful but uncaring.
There are three ‘zones’(described by a missionary returning from
):-
1) The transcendent world beyond ours – where we usually think of God or gods dwelling
2) Supernatural forces on this Earth – such as ghosts, astrology, spirits in the natural world, angels & demons, spiritual gifts
3) The empirical world of our senses – measurable observation, what we can see and touch
Westerners including Christians have missed out the middle or argued with people to dismiss it. With the increased spiritual awareness in our world today eg new age etc, we can use the opportunity to get people talking and questioning about the Godly spiritual world.
We are agents of this incoming kingdom, we are active, we need to be engaging with the spiritual world. To some of us this is second nature, but to others of us we have been too caught up in the empirical world of our senses, and we need to engage with God more in our giftings, and in our imagination.
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